Continuing my love affair with the Shanower/Young adaptations of L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, Ozma of Oz #5 finds Ozma, Dorothy and their friends on the long road to find the Nome King, who has the royal family of the land of Ev in his clutches. With the way barred by an enormous mechanical man and a powerful mallet, it seems they may have to turn back – unless some among them can find the courage to go on. As I’ve stated before, Ozma of Oz is, in fact, my favorite of the original 14 Oz novels, and we’re getting into some of my favorite scenes now. The rush to get past the giant robot is cute, and Young’s portrayal of it is really magnificent. The journey into the kingdom of the Nomes is really inventive and imaginative as well. Young’s depiction of the Nomes themselves and their kingdom as a whole is very different from any other interpretation of these characters or this part of their world I’ve ever seen. It’s something wholly his own, and it’s all the better for it. The book is full of energy, life, and fun, and there’s no better tribute anybody could offer to the creations of L. Frank Baum. I don’t know if Marvel is planning to continue their versions of the novels after this one – and in fact, once you get this far reading the novels you start to become victim of the Law of Diminishing Returns. But if anybody could take those lesser novels and make them into something worth reading, this is the creative team to do it.